A weekend of rodeo fun
By Brandy Nance
Originally published 02:43 p.m., June 9, 2008
Updated 02:43 p.m., June 9, 2008
CHASE COUNTY — Horses, floats, candy flying in the air and a three-day world-class rodeo had Chase County hopping this weekend.
The three-day event centered around the 71st annual Flint Hills Rodeo, the oldest consecutive running rodeo in Kansas. Saturday afternoon was a candy-chasing good time as the annual rodeo parade started in Cottonwood Falls and ended in Strong City. The traditional parade had lots of horses, automobiles and several floats. Children — and even a few enthusiastic adults — jumped up and down on the sidelines to attract the explosion of candy from the floats and riders. The efforts of two young children, Cade Kohlmeier of Kansas City and Megan Rierson of Grenola, paid off. The two scrambled for handfuls of candy and at times raced against other children.
“I liked it that I got candy,” Cade said, barely stopping to give a comment on the parade. It was a few minutes after the parade and Cade was still rooting in the street for stray candy.
Megan was a bit calmer, but all smiles as she held up her cloth Dillons sack.
“I got lots and lots of candy,” Megan said, her mouth full of candy collected from the parade.
Even the candy couldn’t eclipse the attraction of the horses as children squealed at the sights of the seemingly endless parade.
“My favorite thing is the horsies,” Megan said, with a bright smile. “Because they are my favorite animal.”
A rodeo performance was held Saturday evening at the arena in Strong City. It was a clear, breezy evening for “Saturday Night Live” at the rodeo. The stands were packed and the announcer, Roger Mooney of Ellijay, Ga., kept the fans up to date with his play-by-play.
Just before the competition started, Jake Miller performed trick roping for the crowd. He dazzled the crowd with tricks including the “Texas Skip,” which drew cheers.
Mooney worked the crowd up before the show.
“We’re gonna put a couple of logs on the fire, light you up and send you home smokin’,” he said as the crowd cheered.
The crowd was only given one job to do — have fun. The rodeo delivered as promised as there were bucks and spills, dust and flying dirt and a ropin’ wild time. Rodeo clowns kept the children entertained between events. Kids gathered at the fence and laughed and giggled as Lecile Harris, one of the rodeo clowns, refused to get off home plate during a mock baseball game when he struck out for the third time.
During the rodeo, a “Kiss Cam” picked out couples and zoomed in on them for the big screen as the announcer encouraged them to smooch for the crowd. The concept was a hit as surprised couples kissed on camera.
Sunday at the rodeo was “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” day. Items were being sold to support breast cancer prevention and research including pink hats and T-shirts. A large quilt was raffled off Sunday afternoon. For $5 people had a chance to win the quilt, which was the brainchild of Mary Jones, of rural Cottonwood Falls. Jones said she wanted to do a fundraiser at the rodeo this year and the idea for the quilt came to her.
“It was a God thing,” she said Saturday evening. “I saw a picture of the quilt in my head.”
The pattern she saw was a broken star pattern in pink. She liked that pattern because breast cancer breaks up lives, but with help lives can be full of beauty again, she said.
Once she pieced the quilt together, she took it to the Rodeo Association, which agreed to allow the quilt to be raffled off as part of the rodeo. She and six other women finished the quilt and it was on display at the rodeo. Half of the proceeds will go to Morris County Hospital in Council Grove to aid in purchasing new mammography equipment. The other half will go to the Mid-Kansas Susan G. Komen for the Cure (Wichita Chapter). The quilt and the sales of T-shirts brought in around $2,500 for these causes. Barb Colangeolo of Eureka won the quilt, Jones said this morning. Final totals will be available at a later date.